Thursday
Evening Bible Study
April
16, 2015
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved? Target 3300 words Video
= 75 wpm
The book of Job deals with the
issue of “theodicy”, or, why is there evil and bad things in the world.
Job is going through the worst time anyone could imagine.
He’s lost all his possessions.
His children have died.
His own health is now terrible.
What makes all this even more confusing is that Job is a good guy.
We are told in the beginning that even God considers Job a good guy.
Whereas the first two chapters were
written as a story, a narrative, the next 30+ chapters are records of the
discussions between Job and his “friends”.
The style of the next 40 chapters
also changes to poetry.
The upcoming chapters are confusing and easy to misunderstand if you don’t
keep a couple of things in mind.
Sometimes Job is wrong in his conclusions.
Job is speaking as a man who is hurt, confused, and trying to figure out
why his life has fallen apart.
God will say to Job:
(Job 38:2 NKJV) “Who is this
who darkens counsel By words without
knowledge?
The idea is that
Job is messing up the truth by speaking about things he doesn’t know about.
Sometimes Job’s friends are also wrong.
They are convinced they have the answers to Job’s questions, but as we find
out in the end, they are not even close.
God will say to Job’s friends,
(Job 42:7b NKJV) …“My wrath
is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what
is right, as My servant Job has.
Be careful about building doctrine upon some of the things said in the book
of Job.
Neither Job’s words nor those of his friends are meant to build doctrinal
truths on.
They simply show us how people respond to difficulty.
We pick up the story with Job’s first long speech.
3:1-26 Job curses his birth
:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
:1 cursed the day
He didn’t curse God. He cursed the day he was born.
Though at times Job reacts with
hostility, he always turns back to God. Much of what he says later is
exaggerated, untrue, and virtually blasphemous, but he never renounces God.
:2 And Job spoke, and said:
:3 “May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which
it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’
:4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine
upon it.
:5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it;
May the blackness of the day terrify it.
:6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice
among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months.
:7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it!
:8 May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse
Leviathan.
:8 ready to arouse Leviathan
Leviathan – livyathan
– leviathan, sea monster, dragon
We’ll learn more about Leviathan when we get to chapter 41, but it may be
some sort of sea monster, and so some think this is talking about sailors.
Perhaps this verse is talking about
sailors who are good at cursing (those who “curse the day”), good enough to
raise up a sea monster from the ocean.
(Job 3:8 NLT) Let those
who are experts at cursing— whose cursing could rouse Leviathan— curse that
day.
This creature has been described as
anything from a crocodile, a dinosaur, a fire-breathing dragon, or even a sea
monster.
There does seem to be a connection
with the ocean:
(Psalm 104:26 NLT) See the
ships sailing along, and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.
:9 May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have
none, And not see the dawning of the day;
:10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor
hide sorrow from my eyes.
:10 it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb
He wishes all these curses on the day he was born because nobody stopped
his mother from giving birth.
If his mother hadn’t given birth to him, he wouldn’t be in such pain.
The problem is that all Job can see
is his pain, and he has stopped thinking of what God might have for him in the
future.
Actually, in the end, Job’s health
will be restored, his family will be restored, and his wealth will be restored.
Lesson
Choose Life
People give the most interesting excuses for abortion.
They will say things like, “We don’t want to bring another child into this
world filled with pain”.
Illustration
Let’s say you worked in a pregnancy clinic and these
families came to you for advice.
1. There's a preacher and wife who already
have 14 kids. Now she finds out she's pregnant with the 15th. They're living in
tremendous poverty. Should they have an abortion?
This is the family of John
Wesley, one of the great evangelists in the 19th century
2. The father is sick, the
mother has TB. They have four children. First is blind, second is dead, third
is deaf, fourth has TB. She finds she's pregnant again.
This is the family of the
great composer Beethoven.
3. The mother is 13 years
old. She’s black. She’s been raped by a white man and now
pregnant.
This is the mother of
Ethel Waters, the great gospel singer.
4. A teenage girl is
pregnant. She's not married. Her fiancé is not the father of the baby, and he's
very upset.
This is the family of
Jesus.
Choose life.
:11 “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I
came from the womb?
:12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
:13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been
asleep; Then I would have been at rest
:13 I would have been asleep
Lesson
Soul sleep
Here is an example of where you need to be careful about building doctrine
out of Job’s comments.
Some people have taken this verse to build their idea of “soul sleep”. They feel that when a person dies, their soul
goes to sleep and stays in the grave until the resurrection. The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe this.
The Bible does use the word “sleep” to talk about the death of the
believer, but this is simply because a dead person looks as if they are asleep.
The physical body may look “asleep” in the grave, but the person’s being,
their “soul” is wide awake and goes to be with God.
The Bible teaches that when we as believers die, our spirit goes
immediately to be with the Lord.
In talking about the possibility of his death, Paul wrote,
(Philippians 1:23 NLT) I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ,
which would be far better for me.
(2
Corinthians 5:8 NLT) Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these
earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
:14 With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves,
:15 Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with
silver;
:16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who
never saw light?
:17 There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are
at rest.
:18 There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of
the oppressor.
(Job 3:18 NLT) Even
captives are at ease in death, with no guards to curse them.
:19 The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his
master.
:19 The small and great are there
They say there are two things that are common to everyone – death and
taxes.
We’ve just passed the annual tax deadline.
Lesson
The Great Equalizer
Everyone is the same in death in
that is happens to everyone.
(Hebrews 9:27 NKJV) And as it
is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
:20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of
soul,
:21 Who long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more
than hidden treasures;
:22 Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the
grave?
:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God
has hedged in?
:21 who long for death
This all sounds as if Job is on the verge of suicide.
We can understand.
Lesson
Keep going
If you’ve struggled with despair, know that you’re not alone.
Job felt it.
David felt it.
(Psalm
31:9 NKJV) Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body!
Elijah felt it.
(1
Kings 19:4b NKJV) …And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no
better than my fathers!”
Paul felt it.
(2
Corinthians 1:8b NKJV) …we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we
despaired even of life.
Even Jesus tasted despair.
(Mark
15:34 NKJV) And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?”
If you’ve felt despair like this, know that you’re not alone.
But keep in mind, none of these individuals took their own
life.
In the end, they all threw themselves into the arms of God
and trusted God with their life.
One of the things you can do when you are in despair is to ask for help.
The problem for Job though is that his friends aren’t
willing to travel with him. They would
rather accuse him than help him.
(Ecclesiastes
4:9–10 NKJV) —9 Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for
their labor. 10 For if they
fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he
has no one to help him up.
:24 For my sighing comes before I eat, And my groanings pour out like
water.
:24 my sighing comes before I
eat
(Job 3:24 The Message) “Instead
of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave
the table and vomit my anguish.
:25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has
happened to me.
:26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”
:25 the thing I greatly feared has come upon me
We find out that Job has had this secret fear that all these things were
going to happen, and they did.
Lesson
Fear doesn’t make reality
I think there can be a sense in which we can cause things to happen because
of our own fear. Sometimes our own
anxiety causes such trouble in our lives that things start to fall apart, due
to our anxiety.
But some have taken this to mean that if we start having a fear of
something, our “fear” might make that thing come to pass.
The “word of faith” folks will teach this from this verse. They will say that if you confess something
negatively, it will come to pass.
I remember being afraid for years that some things I was “fearful” of would
come to pass.
God does not work that way.
God does not sit in heaven looking at all your fears and then deciding to
make them come to pass.
The things that happened to Job happened because God was proud of Job, not
because God was listening to Job’s fears.
:26 I am not at ease
Lesson
Jesus understands
There is someone who has suffered
even more than Job.
(Hebrews 4:15–16 NKJV) —15 For we do
not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in
all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus
understands. He knows what you’re going
through.
You can go to His
throne of grace and find help in time of need.
4:1-21 Eliphaz: Job has sinned
:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
:1 Eliphaz the Temanite answered
Eliphaz actually seems to be the
most compassionate of Job’s friends.
Because he speaks first, we think
he may have been the oldest.
:2 “If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who
can withhold himself from speaking?
:2 who can withhold himself from speaking?
He wants to know if Job minds if he responds to some of the things that Job
has been saying.
Job has been cursing the day he was born.
Lesson
Slow to answer
Eliphaz has listened to Job’s opening complaints, and he’s offended. He doesn’t like the things that Job is
saying. So he responds.
We need wisdom in knowing how to respond to people.
Sometimes the things people say in their anguish aren’t the things we need
to respond to.
Sometimes we would be used better is we’d just be silent.
One of the things I’m trying to learn in life is to slow down with the
answers I give.
Eliphaz is going to say some things that are truthful, but they are not
appropriate because they don’t fit Job’s situation.
Things are not always what they
seem.
(Proverbs 18:17 NKJV) The
first one to plead his cause seems right, Until his neighbor comes and examines him.
Sometimes we make
a judgment based on the first few words out of a person’s mouth without taking
the time to really understand them.
James wrote,
(James 1:19 NKJV) So then, my
beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
:3 Surely you have instructed many, And you have strengthened weak hands.
:4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, And you have strengthened
the feeble knees;
:5 But now it comes upon you, and you are weary; It touches you, and you
are troubled.
:5 But now it comes upon you
Eliphaz is saying that Job has helped other people who have gone through
difficult times, and now that it’s Job’s turn, he can’t take it.
That’s a fair thing to say.
We need to be careful about giving
too much advice if we haven’t been through what the other person is going
through.
We can come up with our canned
Christian responses to their problems, but sometimes it’s just not the right
thing to say.
On the other hand, if you’ve gone
through what the other person has gone through, you have a level of compassion
that others might not have.
(2 Corinthians 1:3–4 NKJV) —3 Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of
all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all
our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble,
with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
:6 Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your
ways your hope?
Job is the guy known for honoring God.
Or, “Shouldn’t you be finding hope
in the fact that you fear God and don’t do bad things?”
It’s funny for him to say this
because even when Job does maintain that he’s innocent of their accusations,
they won’t believe him.
:7 “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were
the upright ever cut off?
:7 who ever perished being innocent?
Eliphaz is claiming that everyone who goes through difficulty has some sin
that has caused it.
To the natural mind, to the immature mind, and to the person who has never
gone through great difficulty, this sounds true.
If you’ve lived long enough and been through some difficulties of your own,
you know that it’s not true.
Lesson
Bad things, good people
Even though Job lived during the
time of Abraham, there’s one great historical example already.
Cain killed his brother Abel.
Jesus would perish, being innocent.
We ought to be grateful that
Eliphaz is not correct on this point.
(Isaiah 53:5–6 NKJV) —5 But He was
wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has
laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
:8 Even as I have seen, Those who plow iniquity And sow trouble reap the
same.
:8 Even as I have seen
He’s saying that in his experience, bad things happen to bad people.
Lesson
Have you seen everything?
Eliphaz owes a lot to his
experience. But that’s not always the
best standard for truth.
What if you haven’t experienced all
there is yet?
Perhaps you haven’t thought things through
either.
:9 By the blast of God they perish, And by the breath of His anger they are
consumed.
:10 The roaring of the lion, The voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of
the young lions are broken.
:11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, And the cubs of the lioness are
scattered.
:11 The old lion perishes …
Eliphaz is using lions as an example of “evil” creatures.
And lions die.
The idea is that even if a wicked man is as strong as a lion, he cannot
ultimately prosper.
Of course he neglects to observe that good creatures die as well. Everyone dies.
:12 “Now a word was secretly brought to me, And my ear received a whisper
of it.
:13 In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep
falls on men,
:14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, Which made all my bones shake.
:15 Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my body stood up.
:16 It stood still, But I could not discern its appearance. A form was
before my eyes; There was silence; Then I heard a voice saying:
:15 a spirit passed before my face
Eliphaz is going to share another source of his beliefs (he’s already used
“in my experience”)
He shares a time when he encountered a spirit being, some sort of angelic
entity that told him something.
Lesson
Spiritual authority
If you haven’t experienced this
yet, you will find that in the church today there will be people who will have
this idea that they have a “word” from God, and sometimes it can be pretty
spooky.
God does give words to people, but
we are also responsible to “test” those things to see if they are really from
God.
(1 Corinthians 14:29 NKJV) Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
Paul warned the Galatians that
false doctrine can come from “spiritual” revelation.
(Galatians 1:8 NKJV) But even
if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we
have preached to you, let him be accursed.
When someone claims something based
on some sort of spiritual revelation, you are obligated to test to see if it’s
true.
It might not be.
:17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than
his Maker?
:17 Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
This is what the ghost told Eliphaz.
Perhaps the idea is simply that all men are sinners.
But Eliphaz is going to use this as the hammer to pound Job’s head with the
accusation that he’s done something bad to deserve this.
We are indeed all sinners.
(Romans 3:23 NKJV) for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And though I’m not sure we can be “more” righteous than God, we can have
God’s righteousness.
(2 Corinthians 5:21
NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We acquire the righteousness of God by believing in Jesus.
(John
3:16 NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Even in the Old Testament, righteousness came by faith.
(Habakkuk 2:4b
NKJV) …But the just shall live by his faith.
Abraham was righteous because he believed God.
(Genesis 15:6 NKJV)
And
he believed in the Lord, and He
accounted it to him for righteousness.
Lesson
Believe and become right
Have you put your trust in Jesus?
Are you counting on Him to make you right with God?
:18 If He puts no trust in His servants, If He charges His angels
with error,
:18 He charges His angels with error
God has indeed judged those angels that had rebelled against Him. (2Pet.
2:4)
(2 Peter 2:4 NKJV) For if God
did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and
delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
:19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in
the dust, Who are crushed before a moth?
:20 They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; They perish
forever, with no one regarding.
:21 Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.’
:19 those who dwell in houses of clay
If God judged angels, what hope does man have?
5:1-27 Eliphaz: Job is chastened
:1 “Call out now; Is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the
holy ones will you turn?
(Job 5:1 NLT) “Cry for
help, but will anyone answer you? Which of the angels will help you?
:2 For wrath kills a foolish man, And envy slays a simple one.
:3 I have seen the foolish taking root, But suddenly I cursed his dwelling
place.
:2 wrath kills a foolish man
It sounds as if Eliphaz is hinting that Job must be a “fool”.
:4 His sons are far from safety, They are crushed in the gate, And there
is no deliverer.
:5 Because the hungry eat up his harvest, Taking it even from the thorns,
And a snare snatches their substance.
:4 His sons are far from safety
What a cruel thing to say to a man who has just lost all his children.
He’s saying it’s all Job’s fault.
:6 For affliction does not come from the dust, Nor does trouble spring from
the ground;
:7 Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.
:6 affliction does not come from the dust
He’s saying that trouble doesn’t come from nowhere.
Trouble comes from people, from man (from Job).
:8 “But as for me, I would seek God, And to God I would commit my cause—
:8 to God I would commit my
cause
Lesson
Double edged comfort
What Eliphaz says here is a good
thing to say.
Peter wrote,
(1 Peter 4:19 NLT) So if you
are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and
trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
This is exactly
what Job would need to hear, but the problem is that Eliphaz doesn’t use the
truth appropriately.
Eliphaz shares the truth with a
jagged edge, telling Job to trust God, but it’s because Job is such a horrible
guy and has done wicked things to deserve what has come on him.
Eliphaz goes on to talk about God…
:9 Who does great things, and unsearchable, Marvelous things without
number.
:10 He gives rain on the earth, And sends waters on the fields.
:11 He sets on high those who are lowly, And those who mourn are lifted to
safety.
:12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands cannot
carry out their plans.
:13 He catches the wise in their own craftiness, And the counsel of the
cunning comes quickly upon them.
:13 He catches the wise in their own craftiness
Here’s an example of the “truth” that’s found in what Job’s friends say.
Paul quotes this when he talks about being careful that we don’t live
according to the world’s wisdom:
(1 Corinthians 3:19
NKJV) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is
written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”;
Paul quotes Eliphaz to make his point.
:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, And grope at noontime as in the
night.
:15 But He saves the needy from the sword, From the mouth of the mighty,
And from their hand.
:16 So the poor have hope, And injustice shuts her mouth.
:15 He saves the needy
When you read how Eliphaz describes God, it’s hard to argue with anything
he says.
Eliphaz seems to be a believer.
Lesson
Now and Then
The things that Eliphaz says are indeed true, but they aren’t true until
the end of the book.
Things that are true when we get to heaven aren’t necessarily true at the
moment.
While we are still on this planet, there will be moments when things just
don’t seem fair.
The Psalmist Asaph wrote,
(Psalm 73:1–3 NKJV)
—1 Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart. 2 But as for
me, my feet had almost stumbled; My steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw
the prosperity of the wicked.
When Asaph looked at how things were at the moment, how
they were “now”, they didn’t always seem fair.
He goes on to write just how envious he was of wicked
people who always seemed to have things work out for them.
(Psalm 73:16–19
NKJV) —16 When I thought how to understand this, It was
too painful for me— 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I
understood their end. 18 Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast
them down to destruction. 19 Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are
utterly consumed with terrors.
It’s in coming to the “sanctuary”, into God’s presence
that Asaph realized their “end” (vs. 17).
God will one day have a reckoning with the wicked, but it’s not always
in this life.
The problem with Eliphaz’ judgment on Job is that it’s based on what’s
happening “now”, and now what happens in eternity (“then”).
You have to be careful about forming your views based on
what’s happening “now” as opposed to what’s up ahead in the future.
:17 “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not
despise the chastening of the Almighty.
:17 happy is the man … do not
despise the chastening…
Another truth that is repeated in Scripture.
The Psalmist wrote,
(Psalm 94:12 AV) Blessed
is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;
Solomon wrote,
(Proverbs 3:11–12
NKJV) —11 My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; 12 For whom the
Lord loves He corrects, Just as a
father the son in whom he delights.
The writer of Hebrews goes on to quote Solomon quoting Eliphaz (Heb.
12:5-6)
(Hebrews 12:5–6 NKJV) —5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to
sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”
All of these come back to Eliphaz.
He is speaking truth, it’s just that it doesn’t apply to Job.
:18 For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole.
:18 He bruises, but He binds up
Hosea wrote,
(Hosea 6:1 NKJV) Come, and
let us return to the Lord; For He has
torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
:19 He shall deliver you in six troubles, Yes, in seven no evil shall touch
you.
:19 no evil shall touch you
David wrote,
(Psalm 91:10 NKJV) No evil
shall befall you,
Nor
shall any plague come near your dwelling;
:20 In famine He shall redeem you from death, And in war from the power of
the sword.
:21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, And you shall not
be afraid of destruction when it comes.
:21 hidden from the scourge of the tongue
We know this is false simply because Job doesn’t seem safe from the slander
and accusations he’s going to receive from his own friends.
:22 You shall laugh at destruction and famine, And you shall not be afraid
of the beasts of the earth.
:23 For you shall have a covenant with the stones of the field, And the
beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
:24 You shall know that your tent is in peace; You shall visit your
dwelling and find nothing amiss.
:24 your tent is in peace
Another stab at Job’s heart. His home had not been safe. His children have all died.
:25 You shall also know that your descendants shall be many, And
your offspring like the grass of the earth.
:26 You shall come to the grave at a full age, As a sheaf of grain ripens
in its season.
:27 Behold, this we have searched out; It is true. Hear it, and know
for yourself.”
:27 It is true
Lesson
Correct application
Most of what Eliphaz says is true, but the problem is that it doesn’t apply
to Job.
The old man answered correctly that his dog doesn’t bite, but that wasn’t
his dog.
It’s one thing to know truth.
It’s another to know how to apply truth.
You have to make sure you’re scraping off the right car.
Solomon wrote,
(Proverbs 25:11
NKJV) A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings
of silver.
We’re going to see this over and over.